T
he moment you arrive on the tiny island of Anguilla, located in the Caribbean near Puerto Rico, you'll hear from locals that it boasts more restaurants per square mile than the similarly sized but slightly more famous isle of Manhattan. On an island crowded with places to eat, pamper, and restore yourself silly, the CuisinArt Resort & Spa on Rendezvous Bay (and yes, it's affiliated with that Cuisinart) stands out for its innovative use of Anguilla's most precious resource: water.

On a recent visit to Anguilla (carefully timed for spring to miss the hectic winter high season), I often found myself the sole swimmer at beaches so idyllic that I half-expected the cast of The Little Mermaid to leap out of the waves and deliver a goony serenade. The Tiffany-box-blue seas are home to a veritable smorgasbord: gorgeous spiked lobster, tempting snapper and triggerfish, plus crayfish and shrimp (and, of course, pale-skinned touristfish like myself).

But Anguilla's annual rainfall of 35 inches is so scant that locals call the island "The Rock." Rainwater is collected in rooftop cisterns and supplemented with expensive deliveries from desalination plants on the island. On an island where every drop of water is precious, you can't help but appreciate the effort that goes into making anything green, whether it's on your plate or bordering the walk to your well-appointed villa.

The Greenhouse Effect

Even compared to the other high-end getaways on Anguilla, the CuisinArt Resort & Spa is unusually lush. The bright white buildings are surrounded by thriving tropical plants, vibrant flowers, and a lovely herb garden, where you can stroll among towering basil, thyme, and marjoram before resting in the shade of a fragrant Key lime tree. How had the staff coaxed these botanical feats from...well, a rock?

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As I toured CuisinArt's justly famous hydroponic farm, my questions were answered (in full, and then some) by the resort's resident garden guru, Dr. Howard Resh. CuisinArt is the only resort in the Caribbean with its own pesticide-free hydroponic farm, run with exacting efficiency by Dr. Resh since the hotel opened in 1999. The farm grows eye-popping tomatoes, mile-long hothouse cucumbers, bok choy, lettuces lovelier than bridal bouquets, and lots more practically perfect produceall without soil, in a specially built hurricane-proof structure.

Dr. Resh explained that the hydroponic farm enables the resort to grow a greater amount and variety of crops using less water and less square footage than via traditional gardening methods. CuisinArt's restaurants and cooking school make colorful use of the homegrown veggieseven the poolside bar offers cocktails made with greenhouse tomatoes and cucumber-infused vodka. And on a 13-square-mile island where many essentials are shipped in at high financial and fossil-fuel cost, the farm enables the resort to take farm-to-table local-eating philosophies to a new level. As you can see from the menu featured here, CuisinArt recipes focus on fresh, local ingredients, such as seafood, peppers, tomatoes, and greens.

The resort makes use of every leaf of lettuce and every liter of water: Any produce not used by one of the three restaurants goes to members of the 200-person-strong staff for use in their home kitchens. Produce and herbs from the farm are incorporated into special treatments at the spa. Finally, all the "gray water" left over from the greenhouse (bearing residual plant-friendly nutrients) is recycled for the resort's landscaping, which explains why the dizzying array of flora thrives even when the rest of the island looks parched.

After Dr. Resh encouraged me to help myself to a jewellike cherry tomato right off the vine, I understood why the resort leaves cherry tomatoes on guests' pillows instead of mints or chocolates. The ideal tomato. I have tasted it, and I'm here to tell you, it's good: remarkably bright, almost candylike, and juicy.

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Just Add Water

At a Caribbean luxury resort, you can't spend all your time in a greenhouse, no matter how amazing it is. Besides the brilliant-blue beach, where afternoon sorbets and attentive staff make "taking the waters" even more restorative than usual, CuisinArt boasts a massive seaside pampering palace, appropriately called the Venus Spa. Here, you can indulge in a warm-seashell massage on the rooftop overlooking the bay or retreat to one of the lavishly equipped treatment rooms for a soak or a salt scrub. A massive, brand-new "Healing Waters" pool offers the ultimate aqua-therapy (you know, if you're still stressed out after a long day of lounging): A round of gentle movements guided by a massage therapist in the nutrient-enriched water should leave you feeling pleasingly noodle-ish.

Despite the outdoor yoga classes, personal trainers, and impressive gym, CuisinArt isn't one of those spas where you should expect a rigorous program mandating a fast, then a cleanse, then a detox, and then one leaf of arugula drizzled with lemon juice. It's more about making the most of what's precious here: pleasure, nature, and the gifts of the sea.